Hoshi: "To start, that force you felt, the one that was there but not at the same time, was evernence. It's a force that a select few are able to control. Don't worry, mine is much stronger than others so they won't defeat you so easily."
Of course, this pretentious douche had to make himself the strongest.
Sora: "What about me, do I have any?"
Silence.
Sora: "Hello?"
Hoshi: "It... depends."
Sora: "Depends on what?"
Hoshi: "Nevermind, I'll tell you about it later. To get back on track, a select few have evernence in them, however, even if you aren't born with it, you can still get a hold of some of that power through special objects called reps, they're teeming with raw evernence that fits into a specific category. There are a total of 6 of these categories, called emblems. You were a fan of manga when you were alive, so the basic elemental powers you can remember are the emblems. Fire, water, wind, earth, shadow, and light."
Wow. That was a lot to take in. A power system? Emblems? Special objects? Did he implement all of this in 8 years? Why would he call it evernence? That sounded really stupid. His creative thinking was like that of a sleep-deprived teenager who had no idea what he was doing.
Sora: "Ok, I think I get all of that. I'm assuming there's a ranking system to these 'reps'?"
Hoshi nodded, "Not bad, I expected you to catch on fast, despite the hell I've been giving you in your past life and this one, I still admire your quick thinking."
Those words hit me like the truck that killed me. I remembered that we were once friends, brothers even. But his betrayal ruined my life. I couldn't forgive him. He was evil. I pushed down those feelings and continued prying information out of him.
Sora: "So what do reps look like?"
Hoshi: "Anything that can symbolize one of the emblems and the user of the rep as a whole. This brings me to my next point, remember how I told you about the people who were naturally born with evernence? They are classified as Gifteds and they have a respective emblem that goes with their evernence. Those people have powers that are much stronger than others because of their connection to the emblems, they don't need reps to keep up with others however those who do are the strongest among the people of this world."
Hoshi: "Now here comes the fun part, before I fully transport you to the world, I can either give you natural evernence or gift you with a rep that helps you. Or I can give you nothing and you can start at the bottom in the new world."
He handed me a scroll, in it were 3 tasks with rewards at the bottom for completing them.
[Quest: The Fight Before]
Rank: C+
Reward for failure: N/A
Reward for Task 1: D+ Rep
Reward for Task 2: B+ Rep
Reward for Task 3: Gifted Build
Hoshi added that the difficulty of a quest is the same as the rep ranking system. I read through it, this was too nice, why would he ever do this?
Sora: "What's the catch?"
Hoshi just smiled and said, "Do you accept?"
I knew that I had to accept, that there was no way to go to the new world without this. Reluctantly, I shook his hand. The world started to disintegrate around the two of us, every particle turning into a blue spark in the air. In the place of the room, we were transported to an area sprawling with tall trees.
Hoshi: "Enjoy your stay in the Forest of Ronins! Oh, and good luck! You will most definitely need it!"
With that, he disappeared the same way the room did a few seconds earlier and left a scroll on the ground for me. I picked it up and read through it.